Sabaray, I am rooting for you and keeping my fingers crossed that everything settles and that you will be able to run!
Chiming in to say I’m rooting for things to stabilize sabaray!
Congrats to WC for a successful half ironman.
Guiltily reading this thread in New Orleans with a plate of beignets in front of me.
I read on the internet that there were no calories in beignets as long as you drank a Diet Coke at the same time. You should be okay.
NOT OK! You need to share them with us! 
Have a fun trip and be safe out there running!
I am still guilty of the occasional diet Pepsi, btw - BUT have been drinking a lot more water and Spindrift seltzers. 1 gram of sugar, just fruit and water. I’ve gotten them at Costco and Target. If they’re not good for me, I don’t want to know. 
I had iced tea with a sweetener packet with the beignets. Boy were they good. I remember a few years ago we were here and one of my co-workers bit into one at the break in our meetings and it exploded all over his dark shirt. Powdered sugar everywhere.
I am guilty of too much artificial sweetener use. I have cut way back on diet sofas, but still have a few a week, and often do without sweetener in iced tea. I need to do better.
The hotel gave me a running map, and I know the route pretty well. It’s not great, but I’ll try it with the headlamp. I should be pre-traffic. I’m right in the French Quarter. I had some time after I got here this morning and walked over to the river. I found a Lulu on the way, which was bizarre since I honestly was not looking! A pair of racing briefs (what we used to call bun huggers) called out to me. They have a longer back for coverage. I will wear them under my Nuu Muu dresses and NOT by themselves except maybe on my treadmill.
MOWC - just saw the Jack Reacher movie last weekend and the cool French quarter hotel that was in the movie. Hope your staying someplace interesting.
The historic Monteleone. I’m not a huge New Orleans fan, and in this case historic sort of means “old”, but it’s fine… I stayed here years ago early in my career.
Adding my hopes to all the rest, for your race weekend participation, Sabaray.
I was a Diet Coke addict. Sigh, I miss it, but now drink DC as a treat only. I’m currently hooked on Dasani’s black cherry seltzer water. Zero calories, no artificial sweetener, and as silly as this may sound, I like the tall, skinny can.
I walked about 4 miles today. Back to running tomorrow.
I can own the fact that I enjoy “sugar”- in the form of a dessert - ice cream, pie, cake frosting, brownies, cookies - I’m not picky! Probably good for me that the one thing I can totally leave alone is any beverage other than water. No attachment to anything sugar free or sugar full in the beverage world.
But I’m still bitter that I didn’t get one of MOWC’s beignets…
I am with you, abasket. I prefer my coffee black and my tea unsweetened… I want my added sugar - if any! - to come in the form of European pastries.
I enjoy a cocktail every so often. But given the choice, I would pick dessert every time.
Deb, I prefer my cocktail to any dessert or sweetened drink. The Bloody Mary in your picture has always been one of my favorites.
Wine is my choice of dessert. Haven’t had any pop/soda for decades.
http://time.com/3964826/exercise-workout-habits/?xid=time_socialflow_facebook
5 Research Backed Habits of People Who Never Skip A Workout
Well, first of all, “Never” is a strong work! 
Some interesting thoughts here. Do you or should we count “everything”? The walk across the parking lot? The slower than slow poky walks with an older dog? The walk around the cubicles at the office to get to the candy dish?!!!
Also looking at the last one, “make one change at a time” - this was discussed in another thread recently here on CC. In regards to “one change” - should that first change be your diet or your exercise? I think most people say they will change their diet first - and then never really get to the exercise - partly because they didn’t want to exercise in the first place or because they failed on the diet part.
So which do you think should come first? My opinion is that you can get some motivation from light exercise (“wow, I just walked a mile!” or “I lifted light weights for 10 minutes”) - that will be personally satisfying than a radical diet change - which is what many try to do.
Thanks abasket – interesting article. I know the weight only came off when I started running again 5-6x/week. For years, couldn’t make the scale budge. Now I’ve lost 20 lbs. I started to be more mindful about diet too. Brought lunch to work; scaled back on ice cream (Talenti Sea Salt Caramel is my downfall). I believe small changes add up to a lot.
Well, “count everything” is what fitness trackers do. It clearly works for a lot of people as a motivator.
I started with food when I wanted to lose weight (I was already walking about a mile a day with the dogs, sometimes more). It took about thirty pounds and the discovery of Hoka shoes before I could even start Couch to Five K without wanting to take ten Advil and crawl back into bed.
I looked back in my training log and I missed two workouts during the past six months - two short runs in the same week when I was struggling with my ankle. So I guess I’m pretty close to being one of those “never” people!
I personally think diet and exercise need to be a paired change. I always got some exercise - walking the dog. Then he died and I didn’t walk and spent my time eating instead. Fast forward and I didn’t want to be fat in photos at D’s college grad like I was in her HS grad photos, so I did both - dieted and exercised. Success! If you are going to try one change at a time, then I would start with exercise. Physically you will feel better and not want to poison your body with unhealthy stuff. I know I did.
I think for some people, radical change is necessary in diet, simply because they’re not eating anything healthy. Is it sustainable to go from three fast food meals a day to a kale eating machine? It depends how badly they want their health back. For me, a small change was not eating fast food. It made it a lot easier for the pounds to come off.
I don’t count everything I do because a lot of them are habits I had even when I was fat (stairs, furthest parking space). I haven’t been wearing my Fitbit this week because I want to forget about steps this week. November 1st I am going to count running and intentional walking (pup walks) towards my 2016 goal and I just might make it.
This morning ran a bit over 2 miles with strides, then did some facilitated stretching with my trainer. Looked back over my stats and my cadence has improved from an average of around 160 to pretty close to 180 consistently. Average HR while running has dropped close to 30 points. I am not fast, but I feel like I have made significant improvements to my cardiovascular health and my running form. Having a coach has been great, but I am honestly looking forward to shorter runs for the next couple of months!
Correlation != causation.
Buried at the end of the article:
So IMO what this study really means is that in general consuming sweet beverages is a symptom of an unhealthy lifestyle which can lead to diabetes, not a cause. I don’t think the folks here who are running and working out for hours a week are at much risk from a few diet sodas.